The American Spectator

Reader Mail

HOLY POLITICS
Re: Mark Tooley's The Liberal Jesus:

Jesus (reputedly) healed the sick, raised the dead, etc. without any need of capital (nothing in The Gospels about Jesus writing grants directed at the Roman government or to charitable foundations of the time). All miracles performed today seem to depend on capital (formation required). Until another Jesus, who can do good out of thin air, appears in our midst, we're all better off letting the rich be rich so we can appropriate their capital (some, not all) to help with social needs, and so they can donate their capital to charities to help with social needs.
-- Ty Knoy
Ann Arbor, Michigan

I cannot remember Jesus being an advocate for organizing the government to provide charity. It was the government, encouraged by religious leaders, that organized His execution. Maybe the part of the Bible supporting the left was lost along with the Eleventh Commandment. Number eleven was discovered by an archeologist named Marx: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need.

Mr. Tooley is very ambitious in his attempts at self-defense. The most tiring aspect of arguing with a liberal is first addressing the ideas that contain questionable or false assumptions. The gauntlet of false assumptions and loaded presumptions is intended to present the defender with hurdles on the uneven playing field that liberals always pretend to loath.

Well done, Mr. Tooley.
-- Danny L. Newton
Cookeville, Tennessee

Randy Balmer comes from the same small Connecticut town that I live in. Randy is seen as a far left "intellectual" who is way out of step with reality. He's run for a number of elective offices in town, the last being a state representative race, and he lost that race by a large margin. He spent most of that election throwing verbal and written rocks at John Frey, our incumbent state representative.

I'm sure his new book is in keeping with his leftist intellectual thoughts and will be purchased and read by the 1,500 Methodists, Presbyterians, Congregationalists and other left leaning thinkers.
-- Tom Corry

Jesus is liberal with love and kindness, but that is where it ends --

John 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments. Hmm. Seems very conditional to me.

John 14:23 Jesus answered and said unto him, if a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him. Hmm. Conditional again.

1 Cor 6:9-10 Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. Darn, conditions again!!!

John 8:32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free. Hmm, we can understand it or Jesus is a liar.

Mat 7:21-23 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day (judgment), Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? And in thy name have cast out devils? And in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.
Hmm, looks like we must get it right also.
-- K. Wilson
Morgantown, West Virginia

Few things are as annoying to me and, in my opinion, as dangerous for our country as people taking the Bible out of context to support their Liberal views. Please keep publishing Mr. Tooley's efforts to fight this at its roots.
-- R. Trotter
Arlington, Virginia

NOT THE FEDS
Re: James L. Payne's Want to Control Spending?:

So, the way to control spending is another government agency? No doubt the head of it would be appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate. Excuse me for my pessimism, but I would give the agency about one or two election cycles before it would be just another inside the beltway agency pushing for more taxes.

I know it is July and it is hot. It is getting to all of us. I implore Mr. Payne to stay inside and drink plenty of liquids to avoid another heat stroke.
-- Billy Watson
Garland, Texas

How would this control earmarks?

There are already taxpayer advocacy organizations within the government. OMB and the Inspector Generals Office are just a few. The only problem is that they can enforce ineffective spending policies sometimes. Taxpayer advocacy on the congressional level sometimes looks like bringing home the bacon. No congressman wants to hear that his base closing is good for the whole nation when it is bad for his district.

Mr. Payne is onto a good idea, but I don't think you have to pay extra to get it. Eliminate the existing government structure that is already failing and transfer the money to the new organization.
-- Danny L. Newton
Cookeville, Tennessee

DEMOCRATIC CHARITY
Re: Lisa Fabrizio's Democratic Generosity:

I have lived in East Texas for nearly 16 years. We moved here after my husband retired from his last military assignment. We left the beltway after four of the longest years of my life. We came to East Texas to a small ranch and a deeply Democratic county. Here we found a huge contingency of Yellow Dog Democrats. For those not familiar with the term it refers to the firm notion that even if a yellow dog were running on the Democratic ticket, you would vote for the dog!

In these 16 years I have seen a sea change of huge proportion, not only in my county but in most of the 254 counties in Texas (one can ignore Travis County as Austin prides itself in its "weirdness." The change has been slow and gradual and has been to the Republican Party. It has amazed me to watch the transformation. Now, even a well-qualified person who runs as a Democrat cannot be elected here, due to the foolish alignment of the Democratic Party with its fringe kooks running the show on the National Front.

Hearing folks like John Kerry, with his still campaigning voice declaring, "If I were President this war between Israel and Hezbollah would not have happened," confirms to all of us that if he had won, he might have given any one of the fifty states to the terrorists as an appeasement!

As for me, I want to see the return of a two party system. Unhealthy things happen when one party holds the majority too long, at least it is in this county. We need two parties to be able to have both balance and choice. Unfortunately, I don't see that happening any too soon. Since Bill Clinton, I have seen few people willing to admit they were still a Democrat. They would be too embarrassed!

With world events becoming more chaotic and difficult each day the only song coming from the Democratic Party is, "It's all George Bush's fault." Those of us who have the benefit of real discernment and missing the Beltway mentality know otherwise.

Seeing a Republican victory in the Fall Elections,
-- Beverly Gunn, Rancher
East Texas

Ms. Fabrizio has summed up the situation in Connecticut between Lieberman and Lamont quite well. To add just a bit of history, this might well be the final clash between the former "young Turks," Toby Moffett/ Chris Dodd wing of the Connecticut Democratic Party, that came to power in the mid '70s, early '80s, versus the Ella Grasso/ Bill O'Neill wing, that constitutes what's left of the conservative Democrats. It will be interesting to analyze the results to see what seismic shifts have occurred over the years.

But even if Lamont does defeat Lieberman in the August primary, as Ms. Fabrizio has opined, Lieberman will run as an Independent and probably win. The Kos kids might be upset with this, but, their senior senator, Chris Dodd, will ride to their rescue. Not one to be left out of the limelight, Dodd has recently appeared on national TV calling for a major battle over the confirmation of John Bolton. What impeccable timing. Just when Bush, Rice and Bolton are speaking with a firm voice that the Lebanese/Hezbollah situation not be allowed to return to the status quo, with another meaningless UN ceasefire, just for the sake of "stopping the violence," the clueless Senator Dodd moves to thwart this paradigm shifting effort. All this from a man who has spent the last 26 years in the U.S. Senate.

Dodd is but one of the many shining examples within the U.S. Congress that speaks eloquently for the need for term limits. Dodd, who now fancies himself as a presidential contender, stands for the proposition that a neophyte like Lamont, with no national public policy experience, could be elected to the Senate and not be any less informed nor more dim witted than any other current Senate Democrat. A comforting thought, don't you think?
-- A. DiPentima

Good article by Lisa Fabrizio. Yes, I think she has it down pretty good about the Democrats and Senator Lieberman. The Democrats only strategy for the upcoming election is hate, hate, hate. In fact, that has been their only strategy for many years. Call it the Howard Dean approach, as that is how he ran his campaigns up in Vermont. I think Sen. Lieberman will make it past his primary all right. If he doesn't, well like Ms. Fabrizo says, there will be another independent in Washington come November. Anyway -- the irony of it: The left is so full of hate, they will back a millionaire former Republican who owns Halliburton stock. That is the epitome of blind hatred. The irony of the whole thing beggars the imagination.

A little note here about Mr. Dorell -- I don't know the man and I really don't care too, but he too seems to have that same arrogant outlook many so-called intellectuals have. That is a real waste. Too have such a fine mind and keep it so closed. Debate and informed dissent are the cornerstones of a democratic society. To have neither leads to intellectual morass and dictatorships.
-- Pete Chagnon

OLD SALTS
Re: Jonathan Aitken's Facing the Deep:

You might call it the seducer's scam. It's the ability to make plausible-sounding "poetry" out of lies. JFK was marvelous at it, spinning dereliction of duty as a PT boat captain into a hero's mantel that unashamedly called on others (think of Vietnam vets) to ask "what you can do for your country." All the while he was devoting an inordinate amount of time as the nation's chief executive to chasing bimbos. Was that really what the country called him to do? If so, we could have elected a pimp.

And contrary to Jonathan Aitken, JFK's poetry about our blood and the sea is similarly flawed. The "normal saline" solution used in medicine because it closely mirrors the salinity of blood is 0.9% salt, meaning there's 9 grams of salt per liter of water. The percentage of salt in the ocean varies, but it's typically 3.5% salt (35 grams per liter), or about four times as much. So what JFK said was bosh, and if Arthur Schlesinger Jr. had been any good as a biographer, he'd have fact checked before praising those idle words. (That difference is why seawater kills those who drink it. If it matched the salinity of our blood, it might just barely be palatable.)

Carter is certainly our worst modern President, while JFK is the most overrated because all too many fail to distinguish his poetry from the unpleasant facts. As a President, he wasn't worth his salt, doing little about civil rights until he was forced, failing to properly intimidate the USSR thereby almost getting us into WWIII, and taking too many ill-considered risks in Vietnam.
-- Mike Perry, Seattle
Editor: The School of Journalism by Joseph Pulitzer

WALK A MILE IN OUR BOOTS
Re: Christopher Orlet's The Real Suzanne Swift:

I am dismayed at your take on Spec. Swift's situation. Clearly you have not been a woman in the military, as I was for ten years. I will be the first to say there are many fine people serving in the US military. However, even when a woman reports abuse, exactly as they are suppose to, the outcome is usually poor at best and more often damaging to the woman.

I originated the petition for Suzanne, I am not a peace activist, I am a woman veteran. If you will notice the sponsors of the petition are mostly women veteran groups; we veteran women know how it is.

If you would take a moment and read what these remarkable women: Colleen Mussolino, Susan Avila-Smith, and Rev Dorothy Mackey, have been doing for years you would understand our outrage.

This is not about the war -- the peace activists jumped on board -- that is their right and we welcome their support. But this issue goes beyond any political leaning.

I knew right from the beginning Suzanne was telling the truth because of the details of her story that are too subtle and too familiar to be made up. As far as the military doing something about it, we know all too well exactly what the military is going to do about it by their past actions.

It's time for a new set of eyes on this problem and we veteran women hope that we can bring that to the table in a fresh way.
-- B.J. Stewart

GOODBYE FOR GOOD
Re: Paul Dorell's Letter (under "Truth Comes Out" in Reader Mail's Lit Chicks:

In what he again claims is his "final" letter, and I am sure all of us hope fervently that this is true, Mr. Dorell writes, "If you want to read the opinions of someone who actually knows something useful and cares about the truth, try Paul Krugman at the New York Times." Since Krugman is a bigoted, hate-filled Bush-hater, this statement again confirms what we already knew about Mr. Dorell. One of his previous blatherings reminded me of the old Ask Dr. Science radio program. This time I am reminded of a Dr. Seuss title, Marvin K. Mooney, Will You Please Go Now! Surely there must be some country in this world that would be more to Mr. Dorell's liking. I suggest he find one, move there and pollute it with his presence, thus immediately improving things here.
-- W. B. Heffernan, Jr.

So as to avoid the possibility that Mr. Dorell will feel compelled to issue a final "final reply," I quote the conclusion of his most recent final letter which offers an excellent rear view mirror on his ethos and his not so subtle baiting technique. Now that we know his Mensa membership is not just another Kerry Purple Heart, it is clear that the intellectual component of Mr. Dorell's argument, at least, is the product of exceptional brainpower.

Which leads to his parting observation:

"If you want to read the opinions of someone who actually knows something useful and cares about the truth, try Paul Krugman at the New York Times."

Bravo! I can't think of a better epitaph. Mr. Dorell, Godspeed on your way to wherever you will next spread the truth according to Krugman and the Times. Your identification with these icons would be your legacy here if your arguments were memorable.
-- Robert Martins

Paul Dorell waited to the last day to reveal himself as an anti-Semite. I have noticed this in leftists of my acquaintance recently, but it always shocks me coming from the tolerant" ones. Paul might wonder where the Jews in India are or where are the Jews in northern Africa, or where are the Jews in Indonesia or Australia? When you consider all the places Muslims have problems with their neighbors one might come to the conclusion that the problem is with Muslims and not with their neighbors. The Jews made me do it is not a believable rationalization. When Paul talks about the lack of Jewish assimilation one wonders if he is talking about the kind of assimilation the Muslim Turks applied to the apparently Zionist Armenians. Paul might want to look into the plights of Christians, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, various animists and others that have the misfortune of being born in Muslim countries or even where Muslims are a large minority. Murder, rape, and second-class citizenship are the rule not the exception. Paul has revealed to us that he is very smart and from brave stock that has been severely persecuted in the past. His mother was even in the first Trade Center attack. What a story! This is a perfect example where a simple premise (Jews are the problem) leads a smart guy with a lot of brave genes down the path to becoming a bigoted coward that sounds like a KKK member.
-- Clifton Briner

Oh Lord...one can read Paul Dorell's final goodbye feeling that while misguided, he expresses himself well and should be accorded a degree laissez-faire-ironic in itself given the traditional economic meaning. Until, that is, he mentions Krugman. "Someone who knows something and cares about the truth." I think that Mr. Dorell purposefully dropped the K bomb knowing full well that your readers regard Mr. Krugman as having the intellectual workings of a small soap dish. The only thing he cares about the truth is how to avoid it. Mr. Dorell may be a Mensan but jeez...wake up and smell the hypocrisy.
-- Tom Borchelt

Paul Krugman is "someone who actually knows something useful and cares about the truth"? ROTFL!!! That Paul Dorell sure is a funny guy.
-- John Nelson
Hebron, Connecticut

The back and forth with Mr. Dorell has been entertaining. But to leave us with his shot at Ben Stein "down the path to Zionism," and the other blather directed at Stein is truly cheap. Good on his relatives and parents for their service to their country.

As to offering Paul Krugman of the NYT as an exemplar of " truth " and " useful " is indicative of the completely brain dead. A public debate, on any subject, between Krugman, WFB, Sowell, George Will and a host of others would be a delight to watch.
-- Jim Woodward
Fruitland, Maryland

So long, Paul Dorell, and don't let the door hit you in the *** on your way out.
-- Glen Hoffing
Shamong, New Jersey

PLUGGED IN
Re: Mike Showalter's letter (under "AC/Dixie") in Reader Mail's Lit Chicks:

AC/Dixie? You guys are so funny. I can just imagine the morning staff meetings, two cups of coffee on an empty stomach, and a snort of nitrous oxide before you get started. Maybe the White House chef should come over to your place for some pointers on breakfast cuisine. Whatever she's (yes, she, I looked it up so you jackals out there
wouldn't clog the TAS email server with correction feedback) feeding them now sure isn't working.

TAS, what a team!
-- Mike Showalter
Austin, Texas

BLESSINGS
Re: Ben Stein's America!:

God bless America!

God bless Ben Stein, and the publication that prints his editorials that so correctly captures the patriotism felt by so many!
-- Ben D. Davis

topics:
Taxes, Trade, Bill Clinton, Earmarks, Law, Military, Israel, NATO, Africa